Full concentration on Mars with SimyBall

One of the final 100 candidates of the Mars ONE Project prepares himself for Mars with the biofeedback game controller, SimyBall, which is available on Kickstarter.

Vienna, Austria - December 7, 2017 /PressCable/ —

In 2032, a space capsule will land on Mars. One of those on board could be Guenther Golob. He is the only Austrian among the final 100 candidates for the Mars ONE mission. And to mentally prepare himself for the adventure, he is using a new kind of biofeedback device, the SimyBall, which is available on Kickstarter.

Guenther Golob was born in 1975, is originally from Wolfsberg in Carinthia, and is currently living in Graz. But since 2015, he has only had one dream: to be one of the first human beings to populate Mars. And his chances are not bad. After undergoing multiple medical and psychological tests, he has ended up among the final 100 people competing for a ticket to Mars.

Survival strategies on Mars – Play the stress away

Guenther has found himself in somewhat of a standby mode since summer 2017: “The phone could ring anytime and I’ll get the information telling me that in 6 months, it will be time to spend days on end in the isolation chamber, oxygen deprivation, and STRESS.“

To increase chances of survival in space and on Mars, high levels of concentration and resilience are critical.

This is why Guenther recently visited the Austrian start-up company SimyLife in Vienna/St. Marx. Founder and CEO Andreas Chabicovsky comes from the field of top-class sports and has created a new kind of training concept: the SimyBall, a biofeedback device developed by SimyLife, allows the user to experience mental training up-close through interactive games and thus significantly improve personal resilience, concentration, and self-regulation.

“It could be vital for Guenther to have the right level of activation in stressful situations. Imagine the brain’s panic reaction if oxygen suddenly leaves the space capsule. In moments like that, calming down within seconds is essential for survival. Using the SimyApps, Guenther can train for similar situations and receive feedback from the virtual coach,” reports Andreas Chabicovsky.

Guenther Golob is motivated after the first few tests. Even after just a few games with the SimyBall, he has noticed improvements in his performance from concentrating.

Aside from mental fitness, physical fitness is also very important: “I exercise a lot – as I mentioned, cycling, swimming, and so on. I also enjoy walking in the hills – I recently just completed a hike in the mountains,” tells Guenther.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The World Bank has raised its 2017 growth estimate for Malaysia's economy to 5.8 percent, which would be the highest annual expansion since 2014, buoyed by burgeoning domestic demand and an improved labor market, it said on Thursday.The lender had projected a growth of 5.2 percent in October, and this is the third time it has revised the growth forecast for Malaysia this year.Much of the momentum will carry through to next year at a growth rate of 5.2 percent for 2018, according to its Malaysia Economic Monitor report launched on Thursday."Accelerated growth has been fueled...

By Shinichi SaoshiroTOKYO (Reuters) - Asian stocks edged higher on Thursday after the Federal Reserve delivered a much-anticipated interest rate hike but flagged caution about inflation, tempering expectations for future tightening, which weighed on the dollar and Treasury yields.China's central bank also raised rates, though marginally. While Chinese shares were slightly lower, the wider impact was limited. As widely expected, the Fed raised rates for the third time this year on Wednesday while sticking to its projection for three rate increases next year.But the policy tightening was accompanied by concerns about low inflation, toning down expectations for policy tightening in...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's fixed-asset investment growth slowed to 7.2 percent in the January-November period, while industrial output expanded at a faster pace than markets had expected.Analysts polled by Reuters had correctly predicted investment growth of 7.2 percent, cooling from the 7.3 percent rate in the Jan-Oct period.Private sector fixed-asset investment rose 5.7 percent in January-November, down from the first 10 months of the year.Industrial output rose 6.1 percent in November from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday, surpassing analysts' estimates for a rise of 6.0 percent. In October, output increased 6.2 percent. Retail sales...

By Luc Cohen and David LawderBUENOS AIRES/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization failed to reach any new agreements on Wednesday, ending a three-day ministerial conference in discord in the face of stinging U.S. criticism of the group and vetoes from other countries. The stalemate dashed hopes for new deals on e-commerce and curbs to farm and fisheries subsidies and raised questions about the body's ability to govern increasingly disputed global trade.The frustrations led some ministers, including U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, to suggest that negotiations among smaller groups of "like-minded" WTO countries were a better approach going forward. "We...

SEOUL (Reuters) - The finances of most South Korean households and companies are strong enough to cope even if borrowing costs were to rise by 100 basis points, the central bank said on Thursday. A 100 basis point rise in interest rates would increase local companies' debt burden by 14.2 percent per year, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in its twice-yearly report on financial stability. Even with the increased debt payment burden, the financial standing conditions of South Korean companies would be in "fair condition" the report said. For middle-to-small-sized companies, a full percentage point rise in rates would...

About Us

The Morning Herald is a fast news provider in the United States since 2005. Fiercely independent and armed with irreverent intelligence, there’s no other place to get your news other than The Morning Herald.